


"stop talking, it's too loud"

by clickingkeyboards



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Abusive Parents, Autism, Autistic!Daisy Wells, Gen, Siblings, meltdowns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28899927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: Daisy is unsure how it began, but she knows that Lady Hastings is shouting at her.And that she's having a sensory overload.
Relationships: Bertie Wells & Daisy Wells
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	"stop talking, it's too loud"

I don’t remember what started it. 

Perhaps it was the way that I said that I was fed up with the bow on my dress, or how I wouldn’t look at Mummy when she called me ungrateful.

All I know is that she is suddenly furious and I want her to stop talking, and so I pull double over with my knees pressed into my eye sockets, my hands pressed over my eyes with nails digging into the sides of my head, and I retch out, “Stop talking, it’s too loud.”

“Daisy, darling, you’re being ridiculous.”

My voice scrapes its way up the inside of my throat in a burning roar and comes out when I shout, “I’M NOT.”

I can’t look at Mummy, not now, but I know exactly what she’s doing: she’s leaning against the wall beside the door with that particular look on her face, the one that looks disturbingly like vague amusement, as if her daughter’s distress is a joke that I am not in on. Her arms are doubtless folded over her chest as if I am merely a small child throwing a tantrum, and she refuses to entertain it. Inside my mind, I can see the way that her eyes glitter in that particular way that makes me hurt inside my chest, as if there is a sourness twisted there by her gaze. 

“Stop talking, it’s too loud,” I repeat, and I say it again and again because it’s the only thing that I  _ can _ say. “Stop talking, it’s too loud. Stop talking, it’s too loud. Stop talking, it’s too loud. Stop talking, it’s too—”

Through it all, I can hear Mummy talking and talking, a blur behind every word I spoke. I get louder to mirror her, and she shouts harsher to mimic me, until she breaks the mantra by yelling, “DAISY!”

I scream. I am unsure where it comes from, but it bursts out of me in a way that feels like an impact against my chest, as if I can push my mother out of the room. There is a shuddering through my body that chokes my tears into sobs, and I stagger to my feet, hissing in her face, “ _ Stop it. _ ”

“HOW DARE YOU SPIT IN MY FACE,” she snaps, her words push me back onto my bed, where I duck down my head away from her piercing gaze. My elbows dig into my knees and my hands come up to my curls that hang down about my face, and I reach up to tug on them desperately. I don’t usually stim in that way — instead, I flap or spin about or bounce my leg up on down — but all I want is a distraction. Something,  _ anything _ , a pressure that is not Mummy’s presence about my person.

Then something cold seizes me and it takes me a moment to realise that Mummy has crossed the room and seized my wrists, wrenching my grip from my hair and keeping a fierce grasp on me. With a growling quality behind her voice that makes her sound like a demented witch, she hisses at me, “You’re only doing that because your friends do.”

“MOTHER!” Bertie roars, and he barges into the room and — to my astonishment — seized Mummy by her arm, ripping her away from me. I reached out to Bertie and he pulled me into his arms, and Mummy just continued to yell.

“STOP, STOP, STOP,” I shout into Bertie’s ear, but he doesn’t seem to mind my thrashing and shouting, holding onto me tightly and stroking my hair.

“MOTHER! Can’t you see that your daughter is  _ crying _ ?”

I don’t know when it happens, but it stops. All of a sudden, it is quiet. Mummy shuts the door and Bertie stops shouting, and all I can hear is my crying.

It’s very loud indeed.


End file.
